County officials remain tight-lipped on the name of a company coming to the county’s Air-Rail Industrial Park, even as County Council members finalized the acceptance process for the company on Dec. 28.

Raising their hands during the last Lancaster County Council meeting of the year, council members unanimously approved three ordinances and a motion related to Project Brick, a company county officials have not yet identified.

A traffic stop ended with several gun and drug charges filed against a Chester County man late last month.

Earvan Lamount Alexander, Jr., 34, of Great Falls, was arrested Dec. 22 on a variety of charges after a traffic stop in Lancaster’s Eastview Apartment complex, according to a Lancaster Police Department incident report.

With violent crimes dominating headlines in 2012, including a long list of murders, shootings and assaults, local law enforcement leaders have several plans for cutting the crime rate in 2013.

Lancaster County Sheriff Barry Faile said the top priorities for his office in the new year will continue to be reducing and preventing all forms of crime, especially violent crimes. The county logged 15 deaths in 2012 due to violent crime, several of which were murders. Assaults, weapon-related injuries and robberies were also prevalent.

Outstanding report cards for Lancaster County schools and recognition as the best two-year campus in the state for University of South Carolina Lancaster were among the many accomplishments that marked 2012 as a great year for local education.

With 2012 gone, though, Lancaster County education officials are already looking forward to 2013 with a certainty that this year will be even better. Here’s what they’re saying:

As unemployment continues to weigh heavily on the minds of county residents, job creation will once again be a top priority for Lancaster County Council in 2013.

Councilmen Larry Honeycutt and Larry McCullough, along with County Administrator Steve Willis, all recently discussed the projects and plans council will tackle during the new year, with economic development chief among them.

Honeycutt said he feels 2013 will be the year Lancaster County begins to rebound from years of high unemployment and slow development.

Police officers swarmed the area around Lancaster’s Applebee’s restaurant early Monday morning, minutes after a man robbed an employee at gunpoint.

In a press release sent hours after the incident, Lancaster Police Department Capt. Scott Grant said the armed robbery happened about 1:40 a.m. Monday inside the restaurant, located at 1268 S.C. 9 Bypass West.

The manager told police he was alone and closing up the restaurant when he was approached by a lone, masked gunman.

Fifteen deaths tied to violence in 2012
1 There were many violent crimes in the county this year, including several murders, a self-defense shooting and the discovery of the body of a man missing from Pennsylvania. Here is a list of those who died as a result of violent crimes this year:
• Jenika Jones, 23, shot and killed in her home off Rose Anna Lane, Jan. 19
• Danny Clyburn Jr., 37, a former Major League Baseball player, shot to death outside a North Market Street home, Feb. 7